Throughout this series, we will be shedding light on how these traditions and innovations in craft speak to earth, to hand, to eye, and to home. We're getting back to the root of technology – what is the science of the art and craft of making? What is something made out of? Where does it come from? What makes it beautiful? What is it good for? 

Despite the 20^th century rise of synthetic dyes, older and authentic ways of dyeing with vegetal & vibrant indigo live on – living fast, dyeing hard. The steps to harvest and dye with indigo have as many variants as shades of blue it creates – but largely the process of steeping the plant’s green leaves, often in vats, until what was previously green is transformed into oceanic blue stays true. Textiles are immersed and emerge blue with richness and variety. Decorative patterns and motifs reflect the hand of the maker and remain a rite amongst this craft.

An excerpt on one part of this lively process, from a late 18^th century treatise on the manufacture of indigo:

When the vat is prepared, fill it, as conveniently as you can with clear river or other water, to within six inches of the border. The Indigo should then be covered about four inches, shortly after you have poured in the water, there will rife with a kind of gush, from the bottom of the vat, large air bubbles, and a liquor, which breaking or falling, form as many circles, and spreads a light green tinge over the surface, and these by degrees change, and the water becomes of a very bright green. When the green colour has acquired its highest degree, the surface becomes covered with a beautiful coppery hue, and this in its turn by a scum of a very deep violet colour, although, the mass of the water remains always green…

This scum is so spirituous, that if you apply fire to one, it rapidly communicates to every successive body that rises, and the indigo during the fermentation, sometimes make such violent efforts...

Our indigo products are global in scope too – our own RW Guild Founding Collection linens are sourced from workshops across India.

Our Tensira pillows are made by husband and wife team Hamidou Diallo and Tuulia Makinen – combining a Nordic approach to this Guinean way of making & dyeing, all by way of Paris. Exclusively in-store, the vintage indigo textiles we offer come mainly from Japan. And we can’t wait to discover what we’ll find on our next travels.

Indigo – modern craft deeply connected to the natural and the imperfect, to local traditions of making, and ages of global cultural exchange. And used to beautifully color textiles and objects you can use in your home today. Ingenious, if you ask us.  

-by Whitley Esteban

To steep a little longer in this indigo bath, we suggest the following resources: